Gaming machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines, and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options. Where the available gaming options include a number of competing machines and the expectation of winning each machine is roughly the same (or believed to be the same), players are most likely to be attracted to the most entertaining and exciting of the machines. Consequently, operators strive to employ the most entertaining and exciting machines available because such machines attract frequent play and, hence, increase profitability to the operator.
To further enhance a game's profitability and player appeal, gaming machine operators may adjust the payout structure of the gaming machine. For example, to enhance player appeal for a game, the payout structure may be altered to provide a higher hit frequency, but the values of the payouts are lower. This may cause players to spend more time at the gaming machine. Or, if the time of day or week is one during which a certain demographic group is present that usually prefers larger payouts, the payout structure may be altered to provide payouts at a lower hit frequency, but the values of the payouts are higher. Thus, these alterations to the payout structure may occur in response to a certain event (e.g., time).
Furthermore, the gaming machine operator may alter the payout structures for an entire group of games. This may be changed manually through a change in the data (i.e., math tables) stored in the memory device for each of the gaming machines being changed.
Whenever a certain regulated attribute, like a payout structure, is altered, the gaming regulatory agency for that jurisdiction must be instructed of the change. Each jurisdiction has a certain format and content for the report that must be filed. Traditionally, this instruction has been performed by paper reports, although some jurisdictions will allow for electronic reports (i.e., e-mail). In any event, developing and sending this report requires substantial manual effort on the part of the gaming machine operator.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the need to manually generate and transmit reports for the gaming regulatory agencies.